My First New Car

Per my request, the dealer had the bad bearing awaiting me when I came in to pick up my car.  

Unfortunately, being a sealed bearing and all, there wasn't much to see.  I did turn it, and it did have some wobble in it, which matched what I'd observed on the car.  The dealer had to return it to Mazda, being that it was a warranty repair, so I couldn't cut it open or keep it.  

Shot the bull with the service manager for a bit- he was the same guy who rang me out at 5:30 last night as had checked me in at 7:30 that morning.  I told him, "I hope you get overtime", and all the employees laughed.  He said, "I haven't gotten O-T since I was shoveling coal for a living."  Nice guy. 

No charge for the repair, returned the loaner, and wandered around the showroom for a few minutes hoping to lay eyes on an nD, but alas, not only were there none on the showroom floor, there weren't even any in the lot.  I guess it is November, in Baltimore.  

A+ rating all around for Heritage Mazda in Towson, Maryland.  

As some of you may be aware, around March of this year some crazy virus came over from another country and as a result, my job suddenly became mandatory "Work From Home".  At that time, the 3 was about 800 miles shy of needing it's 30,000 mile oil change.  In normal times, that would have meant an oil change would be forthcoming in the next 2 weeks.  

Today, I happened to be driving into my old office to take care of some things I had to be there in person for (I'm still technically on WFH status, though we do have permission to come in as needed), and the odometer on the 3 just clicked over the 30k mark.  I've had the jug of Castrol waiting patiently on my workbench at home for months now.  

Oil change and tire rotation helper.

This photo is the first indication I have seen of Simca on the Volvo lot. What a collection!

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Hehe.  That's because the Simca has been buried in another shed for about 6 years.  It saw sunlight for the first time in that long last weekend when I pulled it outside.  I've been in the process of overhauling the main shop/ garage complex on the property, as you can probably tell from the fresh-looking building structure above. 

I've been sort-of toying with selling off the Simca, TBH.  I bought it around a decade ago and haven't really done anything with it.  It's brown because the whole body is surface rusted.  Everything's pretty much there, and it even has a good title, but the engine is seized and the interior is toast.  My plan was to make a little Euro-trash rod out of it, but if someone showed up at my door with a fistful of hundred-dollar bills, a trailer, and a couple of beers, I'd probably be inclined to help load it. 

Great photo 

If I was that lucky kid, at school I would tell all my friends , "my dad has all the cars from CARS, in real life!"

I was sitting on the couch last night and realized that it would be 3 years ago today (that is, today's today, not yesterday's today, which today would be yesterday) the Little Blue Go Kart arrived in my driveway, 192 miles on the odometer and gleaming Eternal Blue.  As of today, 38,843 miles read on the odometer as it sits outside in the parking lot of the office I now go to, on average, once a week.  Another oil change was done at 35,000 back in April...for those keeping track that means 5,000 miles put on it between last September and this April.  Back in 2018 when I signed the papers, I was banging on that many miles every fiscal quarter.  

After 3 years, I'm averaging 36.6 mpg over 121 fill ups.  Average fuel cost per mile is 6.6 cents.  One unscheduled maintenance activity, that failed front wheel bearing, covered under warranty.  

Well, until a few weeks ago.  I was traveling for work, perusing southern Georgia, and happened to notice I'd picked up a hitchhiker.

Well, shoot.  The OEM tires were getting pretty thin, and I'd planned on replacing them before this coming winter anyway.  Unfortunately, I was in a little town in rural GA with 3 tire shops, all of which had plenty of options for big honking truck tires but not so much for the 205/60R16 roller skates my little sporty car wears.  I was 700 miles from home, so the factory donut wasn't going to cut it, and there was no way I was going to patch a sidewall puncture and trust it at 80 mph on the interstate.  So I punted, found the cheapest single tire (Mastercraft!) anyone had in stock, and had them toss it on.

I mean, it's fine.  It's round, black, and holds air.  I may buy another OEM wheel when I get the new tires, and just keep this one as a full-size spare.  I'll have to see if it'll fit in the spare tire cavity under the hatch floor.  That wheel had a bit of curb rash on it, anyway.  

When I got home, I decided to deal with the notice the MVA had sent me in the mail.  3 years- time for the first emissions test.  Luckily, Maryland makes this super easy for modern cars.  You drive up to the self-service kiosk, dip your card, hook up the cable to the OBDII port, and the computer spits you out a report.  $10 and 10 minutes later, I was passed and out of there.  It was really convenient that the kiosk was open 24/7,  meaning I could take care of it before work.

It really has been a great car.  Short trips or long hauls, just me or the entire family, or loaded up with chicken feed, garden supplies, and paint.  Hauling transmissions for the LeMons car or lumber for the garage or pipe for an emergency plumbing repair.  The interior is dirty but holding up well (I've been meaning to take it in for a good detail one of these days; I tend to vacuum it out every few months but it could use some more attention) and so far it's incurred 2 small dings and 3 scratches- two of which were the result of children riding their bicycles too close to it.  It gets a bath every few months as well; again it's probably well overdue for an exterior detail.  

In 2 years it'll be fully paid off, and as of now I've no intention of replacing it.  My biggest decision right now is what new tires to get for it.  I'm leaning towards something like a Grand Touring deal from Michelin, or possibly Pirelli.  Something quiet, good-wearing, and a little stickier than stock.  Fuel economy may suffer; I don't really care. These OEM Bridgestone Ecopia LRRs are...fine...but if I'm going to keep this car, I want something I'm confident in.  

Congrats on the anniversary!

For an all weather daily I always go Conti DWS in the current version. Good in the dry, great in the rain and light snow.  Not terribly expensive. Relatively quiet and smooth. Decent lifespan too.

Just turned 40,000 miles on Sunday!

45,396 miles - time for another fresh batch of 0W-20 and a new filter.  The last oil change was almost exactly 5 months ago, so I'm back up to averaging around 12k miles per year.  However, instead of the daily ~100 miles or so I had been driving back in 2019 to and from the office, there's been more long-haul work trips.  So, lots of highway miles. 

Back at the 40k oil change I also see in my record book that I replaced the air filter.  I checked it, and it still looks spotless, so back in it went. 

It's also been about 5 months now of the new rollers- Sumitomo HTR A/S P03 in 205/60R16.  Fuel economy has, predictably, suffered.  The lifetime average of the car has been 36.6 mpg on the Bridgestone Ecopia LRR tires, now I'm down to about 32 to 34 or so.  But everything about the car is better.  The ride is quieter, the handling is better, and stopping- I've yet to have the ABS intervene, even in the wet.  They even grip well in snow.   Very much recommend these tires. 

Slightly over 4 years into ownership....

Was on my way into the office this morning, and The Trashmen's 'Surfin' Bird' was streaming on the radio.  

If my current usage continues (it will definitely go up), my '23 BRZ will be at 5000 miles after 4 years. 

I've had it almost 4 weeks and it only has 116 miles on it. 

In reply to z31maniac :

I had the opposite thing happen- afterI bought this car in August of '18 I hammered 17,791 miles on in the first year.  At that rate the car should be over 70,000 by now.  But my annual mileage cratered in 2020, and the last 10k miles still took almost exactly a year.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

To be fair, when I first got it, I didn't want to drive it at all until it got the PPF/Ceramic. Then the next week it was at the detailer for that Monday to Thursday afternoon. 

The littlest VCH helps out with oil change #10 on the Three. 

Nice! Glad you're still loving it. My dad's '15 is holding up well. But he hardly drives it. I think he's got like 35k miles on his. No problems. I'll have to tell him about those tires. He is still on the OE tires!

Just turned another 5,000 milestone yesterday.  Filled up- fuelly.com indicated 35.7 mpg on this last tank.  The combination of the sticky tires and less % highway driving recently has kept fuel economy in the mid 30's.  Still not terrible- and still a ton of fun to drive.  

Time for another oil change.

A few minor updates:

• On the way home from work about a month ago, I made the sweeping right hand turn near home and the car understeered and howled alarmingly.  Pull in the driveway and find the front left tire nearly completely deflated.  Figuring I picked up a nail, and noting the sidewall was fairly thrashed from being driven on severely underinflated, I ordered a new tire.  However, when I went to mount it, air started leaking out the valve stem.  Apparently, somehow the valvestem must've knocked against something.  Anyway, a new valvestem AND a new tire later:

Fortunately, the tires needed rotating anyway, so I put the less-worn right rear tire on the right front, moved the more-worn right front tire to the back, and left the left rear tire in place where it was, so the right-left tire sizes are as close to similar as possible.  Hey, at least they're all the same make and model of tire!

• I received my second bi-annual VEIP (emissions) notification in the mail the other day, so, earlier this week, I stopped off at the same self-service kiosk I was at almost exactly 2 years ago.

• Saving the best for last, yesterday, August 16th, with 56,565 miles on the odometer, I made the final payoff on the note I took out to buy the car, 2 days shy of 5 years ago.  The Little Blue Go Kart is now officially MINE.   

Congrats!

I seem to have missed documenting the 60,000 mile oil change, though I can assure you it did happen, on schedule.

Just hit 65,000 (65,179 to be precise), and did the oil change as per usual.  I'd also bought 2 quarts of Redline MTL, and decided to drain and refill the gearbox oil as well at this point.  

All is well and great until Tuesday on my way home from work I'm getting off the expressway and I heard a sound like a helicopter flying overhead.  Except, it wasn't a helicopter.  It was another dang deflated tire.    I pulled into a residential area, tossed on the donut (luckily I had my inflator with me; the donut only had about 12 psi of air in it!) and continued home.  

Tire rack unfortunately no longer sells these Sumitomos, but Wally World does, so I ordered a pair for delivery- 1 to replace the flat one, and the other to replace one that's about half worn.  I figure I'll keep the half-worn one as a spare, in case this happens again.  I seem to be prone to flats.  

I tried inflating the flat to figure out where it was leaking- and it's from the valve stem, just like the last flat I had!  Of course, the tire was ruined anyway, from being driven on while underinflated to get to a safe, level spot to change it.  

Wow, what is going on with all the flat tires! That sucks.

Probably not your situation, but I know there was a bad batch of valve stems out there a bunch of years ago; I had a tire go down on my E39 525i at highway speeds due to one. Not fun.

Interested in hearing about your experience with the transmission oil change. I was prepared (I thought) to do that on my GF's 2017 3 Sport hatch last week, but when I looked online I saw some suggestions that the trans wants three quarts, not two. I only had two on hand, so I decided to defer that job until I could pin down the capacity, and I just haven't had time to check thoroughly into it.

In reply to 02Pilot :

The valve stem failure was the same both times- if I inflated the tire it was leaking out of the area where the valve stem interfaced with the wheel.  It wasn't leaking out of the schrader valve, which seems like the more likely leak point.  Like something hit the valve stem and the impact bent it back and caused a leak.  Could be a manufacturing defect, though.  I have my own tire machine and balancer, so I swapped the tires and installed a new valve stem myself yesterday. 

Minor rant- only 1 of the tires I ordered arrived yesterday.  Well, no big deal, I can at least get the donut off.  I mounted the tire, and it was fine, but...the date code on it was 2021.  Like, almost 4 years old.    The second tire is supposed to get here today....

The owner's manual states the capacity of the 6MT gearbox is 1.8 U.S. quarts (2 liters).  The gearbox uses a pretty conventional fill port where you top it off till it runs out.  Due to the tight clearances, I had to run a 3/8" hose from the fill port on the gearbox up to the top of the engine (about a 2' line) with a funnel in the top to pour the fluid in.  Which worked perfectly.  I poured in both quarts, with my son watching from underneath.  When I extracted the hose I noted that the oil was just even with the bottom of the fill hole, to the point where any more would cause it to run out.  So, it was full.  The car was perfectly level; it was on my lift.  

The owner's manual had lots of different recommendations for fluid change intervals; only one of them had any interval for the gearbox fluid change at all.  But, my motto is "fluids are cheap; machinery is expensive" and I was curious if a top notch fluid like the Redline MTL would improve the shifting any, so I decided to change it.  The old fluid was honey-colored, without any metal in it, so that's reassuring.  I feel like the gear changes are a bit smoother now, though of course that could be psychosomatic.  The real test will be when it's cold outside- this box has always had a little quirk where the 4-5 shift would sometimes not work in sub-freezing temps, before the engine had warmed up, to where I'd have to re-clutch and try again.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

That's the same sort of valve stem failure I had. My indy, who had done the install, later told me mine was the first of a number of similar failures, all in the rubber. He dumped the whole batch and got new (better?) ones.

Good to hear about the transmission. I found the plugs and had a plan for refilling, but I didn't want to come up short. I saw the capacity listing in the manual, but then checked to see if there were any tips online and discovered several people saying you need 3 quarts. The old fluid looked shockingly good for 120k miles, so another couple of weeks won't hurt it.